Tree 1, Bus 0

At 10am we were at the marché waiting to see which would be the first bus to roll up. We Had corn on the cob and chatted with a few villagers. Normally we might have a calabash of dolo while waiting, but we were both recovering from giardia so decided against it. Just about 11am, the green EMAF bus arrived. It was pretty full, but we were eager to get on the way to Ouagadougou so we decided not to wait for one of the other three buses due to pass within the next hour or so. There was an open bench up front, but we were directed to two seats in the back. We climbed over the other passengers and found our place in the back. We sat down and we were off. The road was bumpy as the heavy rains this month have carved potholes everywhere. These drivers steer these buses back and forth, left and right dodging these craters in the (dirt) road. We reached Koukouldi village and didn't stop. The road seemed to be getting bumpier and Sonia even commented on how it felt like the bus had a flat tire or something. Shortly thereafter, the bus it a big bump, veered left running off the road and smacked square into a large tree. (see pictures, all taken the NEXT day). The tree didn't budge stopping the bus in it's tracks. In a split second we both remember asking ourselves the same question, "is this it for us?"

Upon impact we flew forward out of the flimsy bus seats. Everyone did. I think it took a second to realize we were still alive. There was a mad dash of people scrambling to get up and out of the bus. I remember asking Sonia immediately if she was okay. She said, "yeah, I think so". Phew! We caught our breath and started looking for our bags in the debris of benches, luggage and blood. All our bags were amazingly right there. Everyone was out sitting along the road, while we were still in the bus. Except the driver, who was yelling but not getting out from his seat (we think he broke his legs/feet). And his right-hand man was still lying horizontally where a dash board might be. He wasn't moving. We stayed in the bus and I called the Peace Corps office immediately. Help was on the way.

We caught our breath by staying in the bus. People kept climbing back in looking for a missing cell phone or hat. Sonia also called one of her coworkers to send the ambulance, as our village was only 10km away. About 10min went by when a bus traveling in the opposite direction stopped. It's was the same company. They maneuvered around as if to try and pull the disabled bus out of the ditch/tree. We started yelling "no, we're still inside". At this point we wanted to get out of the bus but Sonia couldn't put weight on her right leg, and I couldn't lift her out the window as my shoulder hurt. A couple guys helped lift us out the side window and we joined the rest of the passengers on the side of the road. There were a handful of people lying on the ground with very obvious fractures, and most the rest of everyone else had some sort of cut.

The antiquated ambulance from our village was the first to arrive, aside from a couple private cars. We knew the driver. We pointed out the worst injured and he got them in the ambulance. And then it started to rain really hard. Some nice lady gave Sonia an umbrella, but that wasn't doing much. A few locals convinced us to go seek shelter in one of the stopped buses. They carried Sonia into the bus and we waited. Eventually the gendarme (police) showed up. All the heavily injured had already been sent off to the hospital 20km away in Koudougou. They convinced us to give up our shelter and climb into the back of their pickup truck, along with about 10 other people, to take us to the same hospital in Koudougou. Sonia had two policemen tending to her leg. It was still raining, and every time the truck hit a pothole we cringed from the pain from our respective injuries. We arrived in Koudougou soaking wet, but were happy to see the white Peace Corps Landcruiser and a few familiar faces. We climbed into the back and were off for Ouaga.

(Sonia in the back of the Peace Corps' Landcruiser, nibbling on cookies just hours after the accident. See, she's fine)


We got x-rays and it was confirmed Sonia had a fractured leg/hip and I had a broken collar bone. The jokes started flying about Sonia being 30 and already breaking a hip. The irony was that on her 30th birthday just a month before, I had made the smart ass comment, "Happy 30th birthday Sonia, now don't go breaking a hip on me". Talk about a prophecy. We went on to the Peace Corps office and checked into their in-house infirmary. And that was when the real bad news came... we needed to leave Burkina Faso to seek proper medical attention. We were devastated. We talked it through and at some point accepted the reality. But where would we be going, and when?

The next day, while Sonia was stuck bed-ridden, I headed back to our village to get more clothes and speak with our community about the accident and that we'd be gone for a while. This also gave me a chance to snap a couple shots of the bus if it were still there. It was!

Peace Corps rolled out the proverbial red carpet for us sending a charter jet to shuttle us to South Africa (the standard commercial options would have taken too long to coordinate as there are not a lot of options leaving Ouaga). The Netcare Air Ambulance was fantastic and had Sonia's leg completely immobilized on a stretcher. The crew was great even letting us watch an in flight movie on the private flight. It was about an 8hr trip, touching down once in Angola to refuel. We all stepped outside the plane (well, except Sonia) to witness a lunar eclipse. We finally landed in Johannesburg, South Africa around 3am local time. An ambulance took us to a very nice, modern, developed world hospital in neighboring Pretoria (the capitol of South Africa). We weren't both admitted (for me I think they were just being nice by giving me a bed). Sonia was off for her little operation just a few hours later. They put three titanium screws in her leg to prevent further fracturing. A few hours later she was out and we were watching the Olympics on TV together. Amazingly enough, she is already up and walking around (slowly, and crutch-assisted of course)! She'll be running/dancing/skipping before we know it.









And that were the story currently stands. Sonia is wrapping up her stay at the hospital hoping to get out in a couple days and I'm already starting the recovery at a local Peace Corps B&B called The Rose Guest House in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Rose Guest House
32 Murray Street
BROOKLYN Pretoria,
South Africa

What now? We're not completely sure. We're hoping to just heal well and eventually head back to Burkina to finish all that we have started.

We're super thankful to have walked away from this one with some relatively minor injuries. "Dieu est grand!" We'll be in touch and now should have regular Internet access for the coming weeks (but for the moment our US and Burkina cell phones are not working). Thank you all for the warm wishes. Stay tuned... and always sit in the BACK of the bus!

Nos premières vacances!! (our first mini vacation)

Depuis notre dernier message, beaucoup de choses se sont passées. En commençant par l'arrivée officielle de la saison des pluies torrentielles, en passant par mon trentième anniversaire et finalement nos premières vacances!!

Avec l'arrivée de la saison des pluies, cela veut dire qu'il pleut tous les 1-3 jours, pluies précédées par des vents très forts. Alors on se retrouve dans notre maison de briques de bouette , on regarde la tempête dehors et on joue aux cartes en mangeant du popcorn! Voilà un petit résumé de nos loisirs.

Les paysants eux sont très occupés dans leurs champs, du matin jusqu'au soir. Alors c'est un peu difficile pour nous de mener nos activités, mais on s'habitue! Aussi,quand il pleut, TOUT le monde rentre dans leur maison et si t'as une réunion à quelquepart, c'est forcément annulé. Ce qui est extraordinaire c'est de voir le foin et les epis de mil/ maïs pousser partout, tout est vert maintenant (il faut comprendre que ça fait 9 mois qu'on voit just de la terre rouge, alros voir du vert c'est excitant!). Notre famille a semé du mil, du maïs, des arachides, des pois de terre (ça ressemble à des bines rondes), et du riz. Ryan et moi avons semé des tomates et des piments verts dans un petit jardin qu'on a fait derrière la maison. Ce n'est plus la saison des tomates, alors on a hâte que les nôtres poussent!

Sur une autre note, je fais officiellement parti du club des 30! Pour l'occasion, on a voyagé dans le sud du pays avec une autre volontaire pour aller faire un peu de tourisme. Le plus beau cadeau de fête que j'ai eu c'était de regarder un film sur un ordinateur portable. WOW! Et quel film plus approprié que "Madagascar". Ca c'était du luxe! La journée après ma fête, on s'est rendus encore plus au sud pour aller voir des chutes absolument exceptionnelles et des domes de plus de 1.8 billion d'années! On pouvait même grimper dessus, pour avoir une superbe vue sur les champs de canne à sucre de la région. Il y a vraiment beaucoup plus de verdure dans le sud, des champs de riz et de canne à sucre, ce qui est très joli. On est aussi allés voir des hippopotames sur un lac tout près. On nous a amené sur un petit canoe pour se rendre au milieu du lac, où on peut voir les hippopotames tôt le matin ou le soir peu avant le coucher du soleil. On s'est donc approchés à environ 60-100 mètres des hippos. J'avoue que c'était un peu épeurant, mais ça a valu le coup!

Maintenant nous sommes de retour au village pour continuer nos activités. Je travaille beaucoup avec le comité de gestion de la clinique du village, j'aide pendant les journées de vaccination et les pesées de bébés,je fais aussi des sensibilisations sur la malaria une fois par semaine (c'est la saison la pire pour les cas de malaria, vue que les pluies attirent les moustiques). Ryan lui est occupé avec les groupements féminins, les demandes de fonds pour appuyer des projets de banque de céréales, de moulin, etc.

On vous salue tous et on espère avoir de vos nouvelles bientôt!

Okay, sorry everyone else who didn't understand all of that. Sonia got a little carried away with the French. So, in honor of Sonia's 30th birthday, we took our first little vacaton trip town to the south of Burkina. It's much cooler (temperature wise) and thus much more lush with vegitation. We spent three days in Bobo Dioulasso and three days in Banfora. We got to see a waterfall, climb some billion year old rock formations and sit in a paddle boat about 50ft from six wild hippos. (see pictures)

Also, we've talked about weather alot, well we're finally happy to say the heat has diminished and the rains are here. It rains almost everyday, and when it rains it RAINS. We're talking some serious hurricaine-like downpours. When it rains we hide in our little mud house with it's tin roof, close all the doors and windows (e.g., we batten down the hatches) and then we play cards until it passes. It's really amazing how quick the storms roll in, how dark grey the skies are and how violentt he winds can be.

Oh, and we welcomed a new member of our greater family into the world. A small baby goat named Dieudonné (God-given) was born in our courtyard just as we got back from our mini trip. He's a happy little kid (pun intended) and spends his days jumping all over the place.

I (Ryan) started a little urban garden in our courtyard and planted a few tomato plants and green peppers. Hopefully they'll grow.

Ok, I think that's it. I think the pictures are cooler than talking about them. Here is our little index:
pic 1 = storm is coming and about ready to hit our house
pic 2 = same storm, different shot
pic 3 = lake tengrela, where the hippos are
pic 4 = and here are the hippos
pic 5 = the domes of Fabedougou
pic 6 = a big dome
pic 7 = us atop the domes
pic 8 = Sonia and our friend Laura, can you find them?
pic 9 = the waterfall at Karfiguela
pic 10 = view from the top
pic 11 =looks like chocolate, but doesn't taste like chocolate
pic 12 = all cleaned up and lookin' good on Sonia's 30th birthday
pic 13 = Uncle Ryan with a sleeping little Delphine. This is the same little girl that used to cry and scream every time she saw us
pic 14 = Sonia cooking by candlelight (yes, I said Sonia cooking)
pic 15 = little Mr Dieudonné le goat
pic 16 = Ryan and DD
pic 17 = Sonia and DD

The thunder rolls....

... and the lightning strikes! Finally, rain. And the return of something called 80F. Ah, welcome back. With all of this atmospheric comotion, we are also getting a pretty amazing sky show of clouds

Today is the 4th of July, where we would normally be somewhere near a pool, hot dogs and the occasional legal/illegal fireworks. This year we are spending the 4th in Ouagadougou. We were invited by the Ambassador to the US in Burkina Faso to represent the Peace Corps. So we came into the big city for the day, then are taking a bus down to the south of the country to Burkina's second-city, Bobo-Dialasso.

From there we are going to bike around and explore. There is a well-known waterfall in Banfora and some interesting rock formations as well. This is a nice little break from village life and gives us a chance to celebrate Sonia's turning of another decade (the big 3-0).

Here are some pîctures of people out in the fields and the amazing cloud show:

Shifting gears on you, let's talk about food. This is actually a pretty good time of the year. There are not a ton of veggies at this point, but now there are a lot of good (and some interesting) things to eat outside of the normal fare. We've spoken of the fabulous mangos here. They're everywhere and cheap. We can get a big ol' mango for about 50cfa at our marché. That's $0.12US. How much are they at the local super market back in the States? We eat about one a day, or two if Sonia gets her way. We've also started to get Shea nuts from the family who harvests out in the bush (en brousse). These are the same nuts that are used to make shea butter for cosmetics. There is a soft green skin and then a sweet pulpy fruit on the inside (it's very good). Then the nut (that is then crushed to make oil/butter from). Finally, with all recent rain come the bugs. The other night our family brought out their oil lamp (which attracted a ton of bugs) and began catching them. Huh? They were a specific fat and flying termite that they like to grill and eat. Mmmmmm, yummy. Yes, we tried them. Kind of taste like a butter popcorny taste. Enjoy the photos.

Sonia makes zoom koom, Ryan finally nabs photo of elusive scorpion carrier and then Sonia plays with cow poo

What's "Zoom Koom" you might ask? It literally means 'flour water' in Mooré. In Lyèélé it's "Mun nè". Here it's a pretty popular drink, especially among the millions of non-alcoholic-beverage-drinking Muslim folks and kids. And Sonia. Reciepe: buy millet at the market, pound it with a friend in a giant mortar/pillar (while standing, it takes 2 pairs of arms, it's kind of hard), rince the millet until the water comes out clear, put in a bowl, add pieces of ginger and mint, put tamarin leaves in water and let sit several minutes to make the water sour, bring the bowl of millet/ginger/mint to the mill to make flour, come back to your house, put the millet/ginger/mint flour in a big tub, filter the tamarin water several times until clear and add it to the flour, mix well, add sugar, mix again with your hand, and drink the deliciousness!!! That's easy right? The whole process took me about 3 hours, and that was to make about 6 liters.

On another note, with the temperatures still blazing during the day and cooling off at night, we have had another wave of creepy crawly sightings. The other night between us and our host family, we smashed a total of seven scorpion carriers (chauffeur de scorpion). And the last one I was able to smash lightly, finally allowing a photo to be taken of this speedy little devil.



Finally, yes, Sonia likes ot play in poo. Well, it was more work than play, but boy did she smell afterwards. In the Gouroussi culture, coating the side of your mud house with a mix of cow dung and dirt is the woman's specialty. A team is assembled, the mix is mixed and then they put a nice coat of it on anything that they don't want to wash away in the rains. Apparently it will make the mud structures last quite a long time (a couple years). Sonia and a few neighbors were elbows deep doing crépissage(that's the word in French) all morning. And then they put white strips all around it for decoration.

Maintenant en francais... Il faut le voir pour le croire! Ici au Burkina, vu que pas mal toutes les maisons, poulaillers, etc. sont fabriqués de briques de boue/paille/terre, il faut ajouter une couche de soit ciment (pour ceux avec les moyens) ou bien une bonne couche de booze de vache (pour les paysans) pour pas que les bâtiments s'effondrent pendant la saison des pluies. Ce travail est la spécialité des femmes chez les Gouroussi. On invite les femmes du quartier, on fait un mélange de terre/booze de vache, ajoute un peu d'eau et on commence le "crépissage". Et après on nous récompense avec de la nourriture et du dolo. J'ai donc passé un avant-midi complet dans la m.... et c'est le cas de le dire! C'est tout un art en fait, et pas aussi facile que ca en a l'air. Ensuite, on décore notre chef-d'oeuvre avec de la peinture blanche comme vous voyez sur les photos. Cela permet aux maison et autres bâtiments en briques de boue de tenir le coup pendant la saison des pluies. Sinon, les briques de boue "fondent" et le sable s'écroule petit à petit. Je me suis fait bien du plaisir avec les femmes et elles n'en revenaient pas que je travaillais comme elles. Elles m'ont même dit que j'étais une bonne crépisseuse. Je me suis peut-être trouvée un nouveau métier!


I think that's all to report for now. Headed to a Morgina tree conference next weekend, so will give you the scoop on that when I get back.

Hallelujah!

Where there are clouds, soon will there be rain! In fact, it has rained a couple times in the last week and it's fantastic. All of the farmers are rushing to their fields to start seeding their millet. This could be the start of the rainy season (and end of the HOT season)! Yahoo!

All is well here. We are cuurently enjoying the peak of the mango season. They grow mangoes like we grow apples. They are everwhere. And they're dirt cheap. Sonia bought seven the other day for the equivalent of $.06 US. The only problem is that they are kind of messy to eat. But that's not stopping us.

Not much else to report. Just busy gearing up for our various community projects on the horizon.

Oh, and we wanted to share a picture of our little friend Delphiné, the daughter of our closest neighbor. She comes to greet us every morning before she gets all dirty (which only takes a matter of minutes). When we first arrived she screamed every time she saw us (something quite common here). But now we're ol' buddies. And despite the competition, she is starting to warm up to Sonia. She's too cute...